<p>Hornetguy I was looking at pictures of your BCT on the USAFA website, when you fought using the padded sticks did your TKD help you? What is the difference between the Cadre (Blue Beret) and the Black hats “Assault Course and Confidence Course”? Did the Enlisted MTI’s (Blue Smokey Hats) ever do beat sessions? They look very intimidating.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say so really. I am used to lighter weight staff's and short sticks. Having the helmet with severe vision restriction and the heavy, bulky sticks was much harder. And I went against one of the toughest guys in our squad. However, the cadre called points against me in dumb ways (they have complete power) but I did some cool moves lol. </p>
<p>The blue beret's are our entire BCT cadre, our flight/squad/group staffs. The assault course and o-course cadre only work the courses, so they have shorter hours and aren't in charge of our BCT at all. </p>
<p>Smokey the bear MTI's didn't train us. In fact, the MTI/AMT's for my squad (Barbarians) were friggin' awesome guys. The main MTI was from Louisiana, great guy. They were very motivating and always knew how to get us pumped. Army/Marine/Navy MTI's are very much different I hear.</p>
<p>How bad was the difference in air thickness? Cause I know that at that altitude a aerobic excerise takes on whole new levels of difficulty. How hard was it too adjust too during BCT and Jacks Valley?</p>
<p>haha, here's a good one for you. In my prime here in TX I ran the 1.5 mile in about 10:40 minutes. Not special, but fine. On the 2nd day there we did a 1.5 mile run (40 ft elevation to 7,258) and my time was (embarrassing) 13:28 and I was horribly sick and puking at the end. By the time BCT was over and I did the same test again I was down again to 10:26, over average so I was happy. </p>
<p>By the time you hit Jack's, you'll be much more acclimated. Don't worry too much though, MANY more people will be doing that same thing.</p>
<p>The altitude does make a difference, but you will get used to it. I reccommend running a couple miles every day or two. Before I got here I would jog (at a moderate pace) for about 5miles, 3 days a week. That helped.</p>
<p>Well thats really going to be fun for me being that where I live, our elevation is 7 feet... below sea level.</p>
<p>It shouldn't be THAT bad though considerin for track we run about 5 miles and when cross country starts we run about 7 so I should be in good shape. Well, thats if I ever get to go.</p>
<p>Running, sit ups and push ups are a MUST for all the 2011 Appointees. </p>
<p>My son purchased his boots last March before he left the USAFA (one day scheduled visit). If you decide to attend the Appointee Orientation, purchase your boots before you go home. My son started wearing his boots to school about once a week AND running in them every other day.</p>
<p>My son (and many other cadets) had to deal with foot problems during basic. My son did not have any blisters but had a bad case of "jungle rot" that he was not prepared for. His feet were numb, bleeding and covered in boils the morning of his 18th birthday (July 8th). He could not stand up when he got out of bed that morning. In a letter he wrote that day stated "the best part of my birthday was the one hour nap I got in the clinic, waiting for the doctor". Ingrown toe nails are also VERY COMMON.<br>
My son was still taking antibiotics at Thanksgiving Break, eight weeks AFTER the doctor cut out two ingrown toe nails. </p>
<p>You may wonder how a cadet can let his feet or toe nails get so bad.......
......."You are not in Kansas any more".......You might get a five minute shower but you do not have the luxury of sitting down to soak your feet in Epson Salt. When you get down time, you will spend it studying OR dreaming about studying when your eyes shut from exhaustion. Prepare yourself for the worst and be prepared to work through the pain. </p>
<p>Just think, you have SOOOO MUCH to look forward to! </p>
<p>If there are any new 2011 parents that follow this forum, the next six months will NOT be as tough on you as the six weeks of BCT. I remember a parent warning us to tighten the seatbelt and get ready for the rollercoaster ride!</p>
<p>That sounds a little extreme. No offense, but your son should have done more before it got to that point. The staff is very concerned with Basic's feet. Our cadre would ask if we had any foot problems every day or two. If your feet are not 100%, BCT will be miserable. </p>
<p>I wore my boots to school every day (about 2-3 months) and ran 3 days a week between the end of school and beast (1 month).</p>
<p>My flight did a lot of push-ups and flutter kicks.</p>
<p>I ended up having slightly too big of boots. If I wore two pairs of socks, then I was usually ok, but sometimes I didn't have time to even do that! I was at the clinic almost every other day having blisters on the sides of my big toes rewrapped. To the point your son had it is ridiculous, that really should have been addressed much earlier, its not a good idea to tough it through when your feet are enormously important in BCT. Not that anything can be done now, but its a good lesson to you 2011 ers, take care of your body. Girls, you will probably have some hair problem if you leave it long. Those that left it long ended up with boils in their scalp between no time to wash hair and having it pulled so tight in a bun all the time. My feet were numb for months after BCT, that's the norm as well. Do yall's best, that's all you can do.</p>
<p>Raimus(or whomever), were your boots pretty well broken in after all that pre-training? How far did you run during your runs and how many pushups did you get up 2. How well prepared physically were you when you actually arrived?</p>
<p>Is it true that to break in your boots, you should wear them in the shower?</p>
<p>Don't know about boots, but that is what my kids do for new soccer cleats and they swear it works great. Actually though, I have heard it depends on the material the shoe is made out of so I really can't say about the boots. The sure fire best answer is to break them in over a long period of time!</p>
<p>I never wore them in the shower, I've heard it does, however, you don't need to. If you wear them for about 100 hours, then they will be fine.</p>
<p>raimius, my son did tend to his feet during basic. I remember him telling us that the cadre did check feet on a regular basis, however his feet did not respond to the antifungle medicine. Once he was seen in the clinic, he was given orders to stay out of his boots except for the mandatory marching drills for ten days. That allowed the jungle rot to get better. THEN the ingrown toenails had to be addressed. He would make an appointment with the clinic and they would not prescribe antibiotics. We saw him Parent's weekend. He was scheduled to have his toenails cut out in September but got bumped from his appointment by someone with higher rank. The clinic removed the ingrown nails (second week of Oct). My husband even made a trip to the Springs in Oct. to allow our son time to rest at the hotel and tend to his feet. An infection set in and was seen again at the clinic. He had to insist that he be prescribed antibiotics after they would only give him super strength pain relief. </p>
<p>*I'm sure tending to his feet was not always a top priority. My guess is he had other demands on his time.</p>
<p>momof3boyz - wow, that is kinda scary. Sounds like your son didn't get the care he needed at the time he needed it. Did your son have a propensity for ingrown toenails prior to going to AFA or was this a first time thing? Was he seen by an MD at the clinic or are they seen by nurses? Seems to me that taking care of the feet should be of pretty high priority. Sounds like your son was given some kind of leave to stay at the hotel with your husband? How long? Sorry if I am being nosy, just wondering what types of things we could end up running into in the next year or so! </p>
<p>How are his feet now? All better, I hope. certainly now that he has been home for the holiday he's had lots of "mom care" - way better than MD care, huh?!!</p>
<p>That is strange that the medicine didn't work...that explains a lot. The clinic is pretty strange. I went in to get some cough drops one time and walked out with 5 different medicines! Then, when I got sick, they just gave me pain killers...go figure!</p>
<p>I heard the shower bit for the old style (all leather boots), but I'm not sure about now (they are half gortex and nylon). I just wore them a lot. By the time I showed up to BCT, my boots were more comfortable than the New Balance shoes they issued as running shoes. (Although, running in shoes is much nicer!)
I usually wore them to school, and jogged about 5miles 3 days a week in the last month.</p>
<p>CDK, my push-ups, on the other hand, stink!</p>
<p>MomofHopeful2011- Son was not pron to ingrown toenails. He even ran XC, wrestled and ran track which caused the normal type of blisters when breaking in news shoes. I believe there were many factors that contributed to my son's foot health. 1) the weeks before BCT his feet occupied shoes or boots only five or six hours a day (most of the time in flip flops :) ). 2) basic cadets had to wear newly issued running shoes or boots except for showers and sleep. 3) not only are basic cadets in their shoes/boots - basic cadets are ON their feet more than they are OFF their feet. 4) basic cadets don't want to miss a thing! (who knows how many flutter kicks a wrong answere? maybe my son chose not to find out! ) 5) maybe he did not want to draw attention to himself (trying to stay a stealth basic cadet).......</p>
<p>from what I understand, cadets make their own calls to the clinic requesting an appointment. I'm sure the staff do all they can to get the cadets seen in order of priority. I would hope other serious medical needs were met before my son's. As far as special permission to be off campus/base, the time our son spent off base was his personal time. He used passes he earned for volunteering for special duties (escort VIP's is just one example). He signed out after his last Military duty and had to be back by 6:00 pm sunday.</p>
<p>Momof3 - I can see how it that would occur - I bet my D will do everything possible to stay under the radar too. I will have a little chat with her about foot health, just for grins! Did your S get his boots prior to arriving? </p>
<p>I have also heard that kids get labeled as wimps (or similar) if they go to the clinic for anything short of a broken bone. Have you heard anything like that? I guess there is a fine line between real issues that can escalate into problems vs. something you can just "walk off.</p>
<p>After BCT, do you have to wear the issued running shoes when working out, or can you wear your own?</p>